Ancient cities hold many secrets, but they are not
impressive to see. All that remains of Catal Huyuk (Chat-al Hoo-yook) is a gullied, pitted
mound in a rolling plain of wheat fields. Little is left to show that this town was
a thriving center of trade and ideas. Who knows what influence this ancient
community had on the world at that time?

Only one acre of the thirty-two acre mound has been
systematically excavated, recorded, and reported. The twelve layers of buildings
reveal an almost fairy-tale city of shrines and temples, luxury, and wealth.

The top layers of the mound, containing the most
recent buildings, show that the city was mysteriously abandoned and a new city, labeled
Catal Huyuk West, was founded several miles away across the Carsamba Cay river. The
new city has barely been investigated, but it appears to have been occupied for several
hundred years until it, too, was abandoned. Then the entire area was forsaken, for there
are no traces of any later buildings.